A Broken Mask
by freakshow398
Summary: When everyone finally discovers Narutos secret, they don't take too kindly to it. How will poor Naru cope? read and find out!  femnaru, maybe sasufemnaru in later chaps. rated T but may go up as the story progresses
1. Prologue

**A Broken Mask**

yo's! This is my first fanfiction – hopefully not my last though- technically i'm supposed to be writing a soul eater fanfiction for a friend of mine but i ended up writing this instead, so i hope you like it! If anyone's reading it =S

btw, Naruto is a GIRL in this fic

also I do not own Naruto (but I know someone who should =P)

When you love someone, it's very hard to think rationally. When you have to continuously lie to the person/people you love it gets very hard to keep it up.

When you have to continuously keep up a mask to stop the pain from becoming too much, pretty soon that pain is going to catch up and then...

And then you have to watch as every defence you put up crumbles to the ground.

You have to endure every disappointed glance, every angry glare, and the hate you pretended to not see from normal villagers mirrored on the faces of those you hold dearest.

Then, if it wasn't too much already, you end up lying awake at night wishing that the one person you told your secret to, the one person you trusted whole heartedly and the one person you let see the real you, hadn't left you in the middle of a valley with a hole in your heart and a broken mask.

Slowly, you come to realise that this village full of hate is never going to accept that you hid behind a mask for serious reasons; but that you lied, and maybe if you could lie about your own gender, what else could you be lying about? Rapidly rumours start to spread, false rumours that cause a lot of pain, not just to you but those who- at one time- called themselves your friend. Why then, are these so called friends, so quick to jump to such drastic conclusions? Why then, do they believe silly little rumours instead of the truth that you attempt to tell them?

When trust is broken the foundations of the bonds you made collapse, leaving you with a mass of rubble and tear stained cheeks. You may have been slow to come to the conclusion that this is no longer home, but if holding on to the hope that you could perhaps rekindle the bonds you thought would last a lifetime is stupid then, Naruto Uzumaki must be the biggest bakka to walk the Earth. That's why with a heavy heart, she packed up what little belongings she had and walked out the gates of Konoha without a single glance at the village she once called 'home'.

Hey! sorry it's so short! it seemed alot in my notebook. oh well! that's life. any way R&R also if you want me to carry on or any ideas on where you think this story should go =]

again sorry about this shortness but technically this is just a prologue so =P

see yas!


	2. Chapter 2

When Naruto turned 5 years old, it was decided that is be best that _she_ be known as a _he._

It was not easy for the parties involved to make this decision and many possible consequences were not taken into consideration at the time. It was rash, yet irreversible; and made after an incident many find uncomfortable to talk about. Naruto is the barer of a village secret she has yet to learn about. She has sealed within her the Nine Tailed Fox, commonly referred to as Kyuubi. The ignorance of many meant a great lack of understanding of what this actually meant; and for that, Naruto was punished.

The anniversary of the Kyuubi defeat marked a great celebration in Konoha. A great festival is held with every year that passes and on the 5th anniversary of the Kyuubi defeat, while various celebrations were underway, Naruto could be found exploring the various stalls of the festival with eyes wide in wonderment.

Why she was alone is a matter best discussed later.

Naruto took one wrong turn. One. But, it was one wrong turn she would regret for the rest of her life.

She had been exploring and was pushed by a passerby into an alleyway. She could see paper lanterns marking another high street on the other side of the alley so continued down the path without a second thought. Naruto was 5; foreboding was not in her repertoire of emotions. She didn't see the chain mail fence until she walked into it. She didn't see the 3 angry men of the village until she turned around. They were armoured by fists and justified by ignorance and Naruto never stood a chance.

Naruto won't remember much from this night. She will block it from her memory.

However, she will never forget the pain she felt nor the ache in her throat from screaming for the help that never came.

She wasn't found until the next morning.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto regained consciousness slowly. As thought returned to her she noticed a rhythmic beeping that grated on her ears. She opened her eyes and screwed them closed again, blinded momentarily by the bright light of the real world. She tried again, opening her eyes in increments allowing her sensitive pupils to get used to the harsh lighting. It wasn't long until Naruto's eyes were fully open and she was able to take in her surroundings.

She was alone in a stark white room. The only colour came from the machine attached to her left thumb that had been making the beeping noise she was growing to dislike. The screen was covered in small squares, a green line jumping in height every so often, the beep sounding when the line hits its peak.

To everyone but Naruto it was obvious that she was in a hospital room. However, Naruto had never seen the inside of this building before and with no one around to tell her what a hospital is or does, she couldn't help but feel fear and trepidation for what sort of fate awaited her on the other side of the lone door on the other side of the room.

Naruto's first instinct was to flee but, the various tubes injected into her arm and the clip on her thumb prevented such flight.

Her second instinct was to scream for help. A momentary flash back to a dark alleyway prevented her from voicing her plea for help. Life was not kind to Naruto. No one came to help, and she had yet to fathom why.

Instead she feigned unconsciousness. It had kept her alive this long, perhaps it would sustain her until she could work out how to escape the colourless hell.

Naruto could hear the muffled jumble indicating that there were people on the other side of the door to her room. Fear caught in her throat and butterflies wreaking havoc in her stomach, Naruto remained perfectly still. The beeping machine appeared to pick up a little as Naruto heard the tell tale creak of the door at the end of the room opening.

The voices became clearer as they entered Naruto's room but, they remained hushed. Still, Naruto could make them out if she tried hard enough and she had nothing better to do other than eavesdrop.

"I don't see why we don't just pull the plug. The village would be much better for it."

The voice was a woman's, snarky and cold. It was high pitched and was even less pleasant than the beeping machine.

Naruto wondered what pull the plug meant. It obviously didn't mean pulling a plug out of a bathtub; there were no bathtubs here for her to pull the plug out of. Maybe it was one of those phrases where you said one thing but, meant another. Naruto had experienced those a few times in her short life and had yet to fully grasp the point in them. Just say what you mean!

There was a clacking of something, the scratch of pen against paper, and the clacking returned before stopping completely.

There was an elongated exhale of breath

"You know we can't"

This was a different voice, another woman. Her voice still high pitched but, softer than the previous one, not as hard to listen to.

"Hokage would have our heads."

There was a tutting noise then a final "fine." From the first before, before the clack of shoes on linoleum flooring was heard as the two women left the room.

Naruto remained still long after the two women had left, Just in case they returned.

She had deemed the coast clear when the door opened abruptly, and someone walked swiftly into the room, directly to Naruto's bedside.

"This wasn't how it was supposed to be..." This voice was quiet, croaked with a mixture of old age, too much smoking, and an overdose of emotion. It was definitely male, and Naruto recognized it from somewhere.

"What wasn't how it was supposed to be?" Naruto opened her eyes, ignored the slight blinding from having them closed too long again, and looked up to the face of the man she knew to be the 3rd Hokage.

"I'm sorry Naruto. You were never supposed to be hurt by this. I expected the villagers not to fully understand. But... to go this far... you're only a child!"

The Hokage took a deep breath to calm himself.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I'm venting at you. But, I have a plan to make it so nothing like this happens again."

Naruto looked up at the Hokage in confusion, wondering what could possibly change the mind of the villagers on whatever it was she did. But, she had hope the Hokage could help her.

The Hokage refused to explain what his plan was until Naruto was discharged from hospital. His reasoning was that it wasn't secure here, and his office was the best place to put his plan into action. The more the Hokage spoke the more confused Naruto grew, but she continued to smile and nod to placate him until he finally left with a promise that everything would be alright.


End file.
